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August 13, 2002Cadillac ranger killed in ArizonaNorthern Michigan native was ambushed by alleged drug traffickersBy PATRICK SULLIVANRecord-Eagle staff writer CADILLAC - Kris Eggle, a National Park Service ranger who early in his career worked on the Manitou islands, hoped one day to be stationed again at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Last Friday, the 28-year-old Cadillac native was killed in a hail of gunfire traded between a suspected Mexican drug trafficker and Mexican police and border patrol agents at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in 2000, a national park in Arizona near the Mexican border. In Cadillac, where Eggle graduated as the high school valedictorian in 1991, he was remembered as a good son and loyal friend who excelled at cross-country running. "Everybody would sum him up as perfect," said Art Stevens, a Cadillac city council member and high school friend of Eggle. "He would talk to anybody, it didn't matter who the person was, he would treat them all equal." Lee Jones, a Cadillac High School history teacher, served with Eggle's father in Vietnam and knew Kris Eggle well. "He was just a model citizen and our town has really suffered a loss, losing a young man like that," Jones said. "He was just outstanding in everything that he did, but I think the best thing I could say about Kris is that he was just so doggone humble, he always wanted to help other kids." Dave Foley, Eggle's cross-country coach at Cadillac High School, said Eggle was a remarkable runner but an even more remarkable person. "There was only one runner I coached in 26 years that athletically achieved more," Foley said. "But he was so much more than a runner, and that's why we developed such a strong friendship." Foley said Eggle was the kind of runner who would encourage those who finished behind him, would make friends with runners from opposing teams and showed an interest in all of his teammates, whether they were champion runners like himself or were struggling to get through a run without having to stop and walk. Eggle went on to the University of Michigan where he was a top runner in the cross-country program and graduated with honors. In 1996, Eggle won the National Cherry Festival 15K race. Foley stayed in touch with Eggle and visited him twice while he served as a park ranger at the Sleeping Bear Dunes, once on South Manitou Island and later on North Manitou. The pair explored the islands wearing their running shoes. "On the island they used to call him The Coyote because he was the ranger who always ran," Foley said. "I think he hoped to return there and he was building the seniority needed to return, that's why he was down in Arizona." Eggle continued to excel in Arizona, where he has been stationed since 2000. In June, he graduated from a ranger training program at the at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and earned the class nomination for the outstanding ranger of the class. But according to the Tucson Citizen, the park where Eggle was most recently stationed and where he was killed was identified in July as the most dangerous national park system in the nation, according to a national survey conducted by the Fraternal Order of Police chapter for park rangers. Authorities intercepted 200,000 migrants and 700,000 pounds of drugs at the park last year, the newspaper reported. Last Friday afternoon, Eggle and three U.S. Border Patrol officers responded after Mexican police reported that two armed fugitives had fled across the border into the United States, according to the National Park Service. Border patrol officers in a helicopter spotted the suspects as they abandoned their vehicle and ran into some vegetation, directing Eggle and the other officers to the area. The officers arrested one of the suspects, a Mexican, and as the second suspect was approached, Eggle was ambushed, shot and fatally wounded. That gunman, armed with an AK-47, was tentatively identified by Mexican authorities as Panfilo Murillo Aguila, a drug dealer known as "El Zarco," who died in a hail of bullets apparently fired by Mexican police, the Tucson Citizen reported. Eggle, who grew up on his family's 130-year-old farm near Cadillac, was the son of Bob and Bonnie Eggle. A funeral was held for him Monday in Ajo, Ariz. Funeral services are also planned in Cadillac but arrangements have yet to be announced. |
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